A Delicate Truth Read Free Page A

interested in buying the
     house.
    Except that his name isn’t Elliot but
Illiot
, thanks to the South African accent.
     
    *
     
    Is Elliot one of Ethical Outcomes’
brand-new international team of uniquely qualified geopolitical thinkers
?
     It’s possible, though not apparent. In the bare office in a poky side street off
     PaddingtonStreet Gardens where the two men sit a mere ninety minutes
     later, Elliot wears a sober Sunday suit and a striped tie with baby parachutes on it.
     Cabalistic rings adorn the three fattest fingers of his manicured left hand. He has a
     shiny cranium, is olive-skinned, pockmarked and disturbingly muscular. His gaze, now
     quizzing his guest in flirtatious flicks, now slipping sideways at the grimy walls, is
     colourless. His spoken English is so elaborate you’d think it was being marked for
     accuracy and pronunciation.
    Extracting a nearly new British passport
     from a drawer, Elliot licks his thumb and flips officiously through its pages.
    ‘Manila, Singapore, Dubai: these are
     but a few of the fine cities where you have attended statisticians’ conferences.
     Do you understand that, Paul?’
    Paul understands that.
    ‘Should a nosy individual sitting next
     to you on the plane enquire what takes you to Gibraltar, you tell them it’s yet
     another statisticians’ conference. After that you tell them to mind their fucking
     business. Gibraltar does a strong line in Internet gambling, not all of it kosher. The
     gambling bosses don’t like their little people talking out of turn. I must now ask
     you, Paul, very frankly, please, do you have any concerns whatever regarding your
     personal cover?’
    ‘Well, maybe just the one concern
     actually, Elliot, yes, I do,’ he admits, after due consideration.
    ‘Name it, Paul. Feel free.’
    ‘It’s just that being a Brit –
and
a foreign servant who’s been around the halls a bit – entering a
     prime British territory as a
different
Brit – well, it’s a bit’ –
     hunting for a word – ‘a bit bloody
iffy
, frankly.’
    Elliot’s small, circular eyes return
     to him, staring but not blinking.
    ‘I mean, couldn’t I just go as
     myself and take my chances? We both know I’m going to have to lie low. But
should
it happenthat,
contrary
to our best
     calculations, I
do
bump into someone I know, or someone who knows me, more to
     the point, then at least I can be who I am. Me, I mean. Instead of –’
    ‘Instead of what exactly,
     Paul?’
    ‘Well, instead of pretending to be
     some phoney statistician called Paul Anderson. I mean, who’s ever going to believe
     a cock-and-bull story like that, if they know perfectly well who I am? I mean, honestly,
     Elliot’ – feeling the heat coming into his face and not able to stop it –
     ‘Her Majesty’s Government has got a bloody great tri-Services headquarters
     in Gibraltar. Not to mention a substantial Foreign Office presence and a king-sized
     listening station.
And
a Special Forces training camp. It only takes one chap
     we haven’t thought of to jump out of the woodwork and embrace me as a long-lost
     chum and I’m – well, scuppered. And what do I know about statistics, come to that?
     Bugger all. Don’t mean to question your expertise, Elliot. And of course
     I’ll do whatever it takes. Just asking.’
    ‘Is that the complete sum of your
     anxieties, Paul?’ Elliot enquires solicitously.
    ‘Of course. Absolutely. Just making
     the point.’ And wishing he hadn’t, but how the hell d’you throw logic
     out of the window?
    Elliot moistens his lips, frowns, and in
     carefully fractured English replies as follows:
    ‘It is a
fact
, Paul, that
     nobody in Gibraltar will give a five-dollar fuck who you are for as long as you flash
     your British passport at them and keep your head below the horizon at all times.
     However: it’s your balls that will be in the direct line of fire, should we strike
     worst-case scenario, which it is my bounden duty to consider.